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<title>Debugging with GDB: Which flavor to choose?</title>

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<a name="Which-flavor-to-choose_003f-1"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">23.4.3 Which flavor to choose?</h4>

<p>Given the multiple ways of auto-loading extensions, it might not always
be clear which one to choose.  This section provides some guidance.
</p>
<p>Benefits of the <samp>-gdb.<var>ext</var></samp> way:
</p>
<ul>
<li> Can be used with file formats that don&rsquo;t support multiple sections.

</li><li> Ease of finding scripts for public libraries.

<p>Scripts specified in the <code>.debug_gdb_scripts</code> section are searched for
in the source search path.
For publicly installed libraries, e.g., <samp>libstdc++</samp>, there typically
isn&rsquo;t a source directory in which to find the script.
</p>
</li><li> Doesn&rsquo;t require source code additions.
</li></ul>

<p>Benefits of the <code>.debug_gdb_scripts</code> way:
</p>
<ul>
<li> Works with static linking.

<p>Scripts for libraries done the <samp>-gdb.<var>ext</var></samp> way require an objfile to
trigger their loading.  When an application is statically linked the only
objfile available is the executable, and it is cumbersome to attach all the
scripts from all the input libraries to the executable&rsquo;s
<samp>-gdb.<var>ext</var></samp> script.
</p>
</li><li> Works with classes that are entirely inlined.

<p>Some classes can be entirely inlined, and thus there may not be an associated
shared library to attach a <samp>-gdb.<var>ext</var></samp> script to.
</p>
</li><li> Scripts needn&rsquo;t be copied out of the source tree.

<p>In some circumstances, apps can be built out of large collections of internal
libraries, and the build infrastructure necessary to install the
<samp>-gdb.<var>ext</var></samp> scripts in a place where <small>GDB</small> can find them is
cumbersome.  It may be easier to specify the scripts in the
<code>.debug_gdb_scripts</code> section as relative paths, and add a path to the
top of the source tree to the source search path.
</p></li></ul>




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